he had disbursed his whole fortune, and credit, and stood engaged for large sums. He prayed that he might be granted an allowance of victualling for the last three years.”[57]
Those who have had occasion to search into the records of the 18th century know the difficulties which confront the searcher, especially in writing for the first time the life of a man like Woodes Rogers. There must inevitably be some missing links in the biographical chain, and such a missing link occurs in the years immediately following his return to England. For some reason or other he seems to have been in bad odour with the Government—possibly on account of his pugnacity and outspoken nature—and there is no record of his petition being answered. On slender authority he is said to have gone in 1724, in the Delicia of 40 guns, to Madagascar for the purpose of buying slaves for the Dutch Colony at Batavia, during which voyage he narrowly escaped capture by the pirates who had settled there from the Bahamas. This, however, seems an unlikely procedure for a man of Rogers’s attainments, and the story is not corroborated by any authoritative source.[58]
The next mention of Rogers occurs in connection with the operations against Spain. In March, 1726, Vice-Admiral Hosier was appointed to command a squadron which was despatched to the West Indies for the purpose of intercepting the Spanish treasure ships lying at Porto Bello. On hearing of Hosier’s expedition and its object the ships were dismantled and the treasure sent back to Panama. Hosier, however, in spite of a virulent epidemic among the crew of his ships, kept up a strict blockade of Porto Bello. In the spring and summer of 1727, while his ships were blockading Havana and Vera Cruz, the epidemic continued, and Hosier himself fell a victim to the disease, dying at Jamaica on the 25th of August.[59] The Government did all in their power to prevent the Spanish treasure ships reaching Europe, and Rogers, who was in London at the time, was consulted by the Government as to the probable means and route the Spaniards would adopt to get their treasure home. The situation was rendered more difficult by a despatch from William Cayley, our Consul at Cadiz, informing the Government of the sailing of a squadron from Cadiz to assist in bringing the treasure home. From past experience Rogers probably knew more than any other person then in England of the difficulties of the voyage and the report which he delivered, in conjunction with Jonathan Denniss,[60] to Lord Townshend the Secretary of State, is of considerable interest and is now printed for the first time.[61]
My Lord—
According to what your Lordship was pleased to command us, we have considered the account given by Mr. Cayley from Cadiz to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle of three men-of-war and a ship of ten guns being sent under the command of Admiral Castañetta from that port in the month of May last, with canon and land forces which, your Lordship apprehends, may be ordered round Cape Horn, in order to bring to Spain the Bullion now detained at Panama, and we give it your Lordship as our opinion, that it is not only improbable, but almost impracticable, for the following reasons:—
First, because of the time of the year in which those ships sailed from Cadiz, which is at least three months too soon to attempt getting round Cape Horn, or through the Straits of Magellan, especially if the nature of the ships be considered, and their being deeply laden, and having canon and land forces on board.
Secondly, because their can be no need of canon in Peru or Chile, those provinces abounding in metal for casting them, and the Spaniards being able to do it (as they always have done) cheaper and full as well as in Spain, and as to the Soldiers, the transporting them that way seems altogether improbable because of the many better methods there are of doing it.
Thirdly, my Lord, as the Bullion is now at or near Panama, the embarking it thence to Lyma, and so to be brought round Cape Horn, will require so prodigious an expence both of time and money, that renders the doing of it extremely improbable.
’Tis true, my Lord, were the money now at Potosi or Lyma ’twould be easy enough to bring it round Cape Horn, or rather overland to Buenos Ayres, where Castañetta might be gone to receive it, but as it is not, the bringing of it from Panama to Lyma will require too long a time, because of the difficulty of the Navigation from the former to the latter place, being against both winds and currents, so that the Spanish ships are commonly from six to eight or ten months performing the voyage, and though the French formerly often came with their money round the Cape to France, yet your Lordship will consider their tract of trade was never to Leeward, or to the Northward of the coasts of Peru, by which means the greatest fatigue of the voyage was avoided.
But, my Lord, what seems to us the most likely is that Castañetta after refreshing at the Havana, may go to La Vera Cruz, and there wait for the Bullion from Panama (from whence it may be sent to La Vera Cruz under a notion of its being re-shipt for Peru) and so bring it to Havana there to join in the Flota, and so come for Spain (or send it home in running[62] ships) and our reason for this suggestion is not only for the above difficulties that must and will attend bringing the Bullion now at Panama to Spain, round Cape Horn, or by the way of Buenos Ayres; but because of the facility and dispatch, with which it may be transported from Panama to Acapulco, and so by land to La Vera Cruz, which is what has been often practised by the Spaniards, even when there was no blockade at Porto Bello nor fear of enemies (as a conveniency for Spain has offered) for the navigation from Panama to Acapulco is very safe and easy, and the carriage from thence to La Vera Cruz is neither so difficult nor expensive as that between Lyma and Buenos Ayres.
This, my Lord, is what occurs to us worthy your Lordship’s notice. We are, with the uttermost respect and submission
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s most devoted and most obedient humble servants,
Woodes Rogers.
Jonath: Denniss.
Rt. Honble. Lord Townshend,
London, 10 of Nov. 1726.
In the meanwhile things were going from bad to worse in the Bahamas. Phenney, Rogers’s successor, had failed in his efforts to bring about a stable form of government, and he appears to have been without the commanding and organising abilities of his predecessor. At the beginning of 1726, he wrote complaining of the difficulties of government, stating that he had been unable to get sufficient of his Council together to form a quorum, and that many of them were “very illiterate.”[63] Phenney himself was not above reproach. It was reported that he and his wife had grossly abused their office. The governor’s wife and her husband monopolised “all the trade,” so that the inhabitants could not have any provisions “without paying her own exhorbitant prices,” and it was reported that she sold “rum by the pint and biscuits by the half ryal.”[64] Added to this she had “frequently browbeated juries and insulted even the justice on the bench,” while Phenney himself was stated to have dismantled the fort, and sold the iron for his own benefit.[65] If half the misdemeanours attributed to Phenney and his wife are true, it is not to be wondered at that his recall was demanded by the principal inhabitants, and that a strong desire was shown by the Council and others to have Rogers re-instated, as the following petition and its annexed paper dated 28 February, 172⅞, clearly shows[66]:—
INTRODUCTION
To the King’s most Excellent Majesty.
The humble Petition of Captain Woodes Rogers, late Governor of the Bahama Islands in America, and Captain of the Independent Company there,
Sheweth:—The Petitioner had the honour to be employed by your royal Father to drive the Pirates from the Bahama Islands, and he succeeded therein. He afterwards established a settlement and defended it against an attack of the Spaniards. On your Majesty’s happy accession he humbly represented the state of his great losses and sufferings in this service, praying, that you would be graciously pleased to grant him such compensation for the same as might enable him to exert himself more effectually in your Majesty’s services having nothing more than the subsistence of half pay as Captain of Foot, given him, on a report of the Board of General Officers appointed to inquire into his conduct; who farther recommended him to his late Majesty’s bounty and favour.
The Petitioner not having the happiness to know your royal pleasure, humbly begs leave to represent that the Bahama Islands are of very great importance to the commerce of these Kingdoms, as is well known to all concerned in the American trade; and the